iBex Support

Booking Modifications Through Sales Channels

Modified on: Mon, 19 Feb, 2018 at 3:43 PM

Be very cautious when moving/upgrading a sales channel (e.g. Booking.com) booking into a different room type in your iBex account. We strongly advise against this. A warning will appear if you are about to make this action, advising you that the booking was made by a sales channel, and the unit is not mapped to that particular room type.

For most sales channels, if a guest modifies their booking (through Booking.com for example) the original booking in iBex is cancelled automatically (by Booking.com), and re-booked as a new confirmed booking with the new booking details (it will have the same booking reference however).

If you have moved a channel booking from a unit (assigned to a particular room type), to a different unit (assigned to another room type), and then the booking is amended through the channel. The original room type has since become fully booked, the new confirmed booking will become unassigned, and the room type the guest was in will become available again for open sale.

For example:

You have moved/upgraded a Booking.com booking (reference #1234) from Unit 1 (a 1 Bedroom) to Unit 2 (a 1 Bedroom Superior), and have since re-sold Unit 1 (1 Bedroom) for a separate website booking (reference #9876) on the same dates.

The customer amends their booking in Booking.com to stay an additional night.

The original #1234 booking in iBex (which is allocated to Unit 2, a 1 Bedroom Superior) has been cancelled, and a new booking (with the same iBex reference number #1234) has been sent through the connection for a 1 Bedroom room type, iBex automatically allocates this booking into Unit 1. However Unit 1 is now occupied with booking #9876, and the Booking.com booking #1234 becomes unassigned.

While booking #1234 is unassigned to a unit, a new booking (reference #5555) is made through your website for a 1 Bedroom Superior, and is now occupying Unit 2.

You are now left with booking (#1234) not allocated into a unit, and have to advise the guest they need to book elsewhere.

If you still want to proceed with moving sales channel bookings, we strongly advise you to change the Sell Method against the new room type to ON REQUEST or STOP SELL to avoid any double bookings.